As is known, in the horse racing art, a harness race is typically started by a vehicle carrying a starting gate moving at the front of the horse race. According to known practice, the starting gate extends in a transverse, i.e. perpendicular, position across the race track.
Harness horses, which draw the outside lanes, are at a very noticeable disadvantage relative to the horses in the more inside lanes. This has been statistically proven time and time again. All of the horses are trying to run along the inside rail which is the shortest route around the track. The farther the horse is from the rail at the start of the race, the longer the distance that horse has to travel both down and across the track to get to the rail before the first turn in the track. The problem becomes even more prominent when the track is relatively short because the first turn comes up so quickly. In fact, the way that harness races are currently run, the horse in the farthest outer lane will generally deliberately let the other horses move ahead to allow clearance for the outer lane horse to move across the track into last place in the race along the rail. This racing tactic is preferable to staying in the outside lane which requires the horse to run a much greater distance around the turn in the track.
Again, according to known procedure, the starting ate for a harness race is provided in the back of a vehicle moving in front of the race. This gate extends across the track such that all of the horses are in a level starting position behind the gate. As the horses reach the starting point of the race, the vehicle pulls away and the gate, which comprises two pivotal gate portions is folded to position the two gate portions along opposite sides of the vehicle. The vehicle can then slow down and pull off to the side of the track to allow the horses to pass.
A harness race starting gate of the type described above is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,660,980 issued Dec. 1, 1953 to W. E. Geist.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,938, issued Nov. 18, 1980, to Ruetenik, shows a slightly modified harness race starting gate where the two gate portions have additional folding features for compacting the size of each gate portion when then are in their folded positions.
It has been recognized in the past that some type of a handicapping system should be used in harness racing to make the start of the race equal to all of the horses. U.S. Pat. No. 2,800,877, issued Jul. 30, 1957, to P. A. Young, shows a vehicle mounted starting-gate which is used to provide staggered starting positions for the horses. The horses in the more outer lanes start in front of the horses in the more inner lanes yet all of the horses end up running the same distance through the race. The staggered start compensates for the distance that the outer horses must run across the track in order to reach the rail position.
Again, in the Young Patent there are two gate portions to opposite sides of the vehicle. These gate portions also fold forwardly beside the vehicle. However, because of the angling of the gate to provide the staggered start, one of the gate portions reaches its folded position before the other gate portion and the two gate portions do not end up in balanced positions on opposite sides of the vehicle. This creates a serious imbalancing of the vehicle itself, particularly because of the great length of each gate portion.